May 4, 2016

TALK IS CHIC | HAIR: This in NOT a Met Gala Hair Article

Recently, Eleni has cleaned a lot of hair from the shower drain in a self-professed shedding stage. According to trichologists (hair experts), the average person loses between 60 to 100 hairs a day and excessive stress – or what we like to call being a Cornell student – can cause dramatic hair loss six to ten weeks later. It’s no coincidence that the Cornell Fashion Collective, a stressful, hair-pulling period for Greta and Eleni, was seven weeks ago. So how are hair, fashion and the unpredictable emotions of two college girls related?

GO: I feel like hair is such a big part of my identity. It serves as a recognition trigger for pretty much anyone who has met me. One of my teachers (who has actually known me for four years…) refers to me as “the blonde one.”

ET: My hair is temperamental – One day it’s nearly straight, in an hour it’s crazy curly, one day it’s dark brown, the next day I have red/blonde highlights. I don’t really consider my hair a defining characteristic but rather a variable. I fluctuate between loving my hair and wanting to shave my hair off.

Photo Courtesy of Youtube

GO: Don’t go all Britney Spears circa 2007 on me Eleni! Well actually now that I’m thinking about it, why not? The best thing about hair is you can pretty much do whatever you want to it and in time it will just grow back. It’s like a never ending cycle of reinvention.

ET: But it takes time. When you cut your hair dramatically shorter, it is usually a well-thought out decision as opposed to an impulsive purchase, like yet another pair of shoes.

GO: I think your decisions are always well thought out, at least compared to mine. I had Mackenzie cut 7 inches off my hair and dye it (my now signature) platinum in a sorority bathroom at midnight because I was bored sophomore year.

ET: That’s when I knew that you were a gutsy gal! Yeah women can curl, straighten, braid or dye their hair crazy colors but I have always been kind of jealous that men can also experiment with facial hair. I guess women can too, but it’s not as socially acceptable.

GO: Yeah, it’s kind of awesome that “ironic facial hair” is a thing. I’m literally obsessed with mustaches. I think it only exists because facial hair (I’m generalizing here) is so temporary. If our hair grew that fast maybe we’d have ironic hair-do’s every week?

ET: Men and women definitely have different relationships with their hair and you don’t need to be a trichologist to know that. I feel ballsy, so-to-speak, when I make a significant hair change. More ballsy than when I wear a bold outfit.

GO: This is going to sound weird, but I think we might have a more personal, layered relationship with our hair than boys do… we have the shallow things like blow-outs or fancy coachella-esq braids, we know the outcome and there is little emotional cost, but then we have the deeper things: you cutting 5 inches this weekend or me dying my hair pretty much white. We don’t know the outcome and it’s a little bit scary but if it works out, you feel like you’ve reached a new milestone.

ET: It’s like the moment when you finally get rid of your favorite pair of jeans with holes in unsightly places. It’s an emotional process but encourages necessary change.

GO: I love how fashion is constantly evolving, in the whole world and in my own world. I love how my hair can change with it, and I love how everything about change is emotional. Well now I’m just being sappy.

ET: This may be me over-psychoanalyzing but I think a lot is going to be changing for us and it is wonderfully terrifying. My choice to cut my hair significantly shorter was possibly an attempt to control some anticipated change? I don’t miss my excessively long hair but I will miss you!!!

GO: Meep 🙁 okay, I think we better end this before we both get too personal with everyone who bothers to read our articles.

Don’t worry, Greta and and Eleni still have one more article to write before they graduate and potential go their separate ways (NOOOOOOOO). Until then, because this article was about hair enjoy these pictures of Greta and Eleni’s hair inspo’s, extra points if you guess which one belongs to who.

We share a major, we share a house, we share clothes. So why not share a column? Eleni Toubanos and Greta Ohaus are both Fiber Science & Apparel Design majors in the College of Human Ecology. Their column is intended to be a conversation between their two unique perspectives as a designer and fiber scientist. They can be found lounging around campus, on their porch sharing a bottle of wine or at et326@cornell.edu and geo8@cornell.edu. Talk is Chic appears on alternate Tuesdays this semester.

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ByWilliam WangAugust 21, 2016

In my spare time, I like to watch ABC’s standout program Fresh off the Boat, laugh, and forget about the perils of school for a moment. The show’s excellently casted: Constance Wu is the star, her motherly charm matched by Randall Park’s sheepish humor.

Although I’ve never had the slightest interest in being white, I’ve sometimes wondered what it might be like to exist amongst white people under the same cover of racial subterfuge. Then again, I suppose I don’t really need to wonder.